History Center celebrates 40 years with special exhibit

CEDAR RAPIDS - History has become more than an exhibit for the Carl & Mary Koehler History Center. It is also reality as the history center celebrates its 40th birthday and 10 years in its permanent home.

The center is exhibiting its own history in “Bits & Pieces,” which contains a sampling of some 30,000 items collected by the center in its four decades. It tells the story of how the dedication of volunteers made the center what it is today and how some of the pieces on display found their way into the collection.

But the history center's history is much more than that. It's a rocky road of unfulfilled dreams. Of false starts to find and keep a home. Of financial difficulties that eliminated paid staff a couple of times.

“What made the history center great 10 years ago is still in place,” said Executive Director Melanie Alexander. “It still has a wonderful collection and stories to tell.”

A “Time Travelers” exhibit, allowing visitors to listen to old-time radio shows and 1960s music, opened Oct. 31. Permanent exhibits and workshops provide a continuous historic presence. And a new “Main Streets of Linn County” exhibit is planned for the spring.

“We're not just Cedar Rapids history,” Alexander said. “We're Linn County history.”

On the job since August, Alexander praises board members and volunteers for stabilizing the history center after a tumultuous decade. A $1.4 million mortgage obligation nearly forced foreclosure on its building in 2003. Additional financial difficulties prompted the 2006 layoff of all 12 staff members.

“The economy isn't the best,” Alexander said. “We still have a lot of fundraising and grant writing to do in 2010. I'm still optimistic we're in good shape.”

The center had humble beginnings in 1969 as the Linn County Historical Museum Association. But even then, members envisioned a permanent home where a narrative of the county's history and examples from its past could be kept.

By 1976, a $10,000 grant allowed the hiring of the center's first director, and that led to securing a home at 1300 Second Ave. SE.

In 1983, as a new library neared completion, the association eyed the old Carnegie library facing Greene Square Park. Alas, the building was to become today's Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.

A 1984 bequest of $125,000 jump-started the search that culminated in the acquisition of a new home at 101 Eighth Ave. SE. And by 1986, the museum, under the direction of Adrian Anderson, was ready to launch a bigger and better future.

But two announced fund drives - one for $3 million in 1987 to upgrade the facility and one for $5 million in 1989 to construct an adjacent building and establish a $1.5 million endowment - failed to take off.

In March 1991, financial difficulties forced the layoff of Anderson and his two-person staff.

Later that year, a $263,000 grant and fundraising allowed the rehiring of the two staff people and gave the board hope that it could acquire the Hanford American Legion Post on the other side of Greene Square Park. But by 1992, the offer to buy had been withdrawn. That building is now the TrueNorth insurance and financial firm and a potential site for a new library.

The museum was renamed The History Center in 1994, and two years later, the quest for a permanent home became more urgent when the city wanted the property for a parking lot.

After a two-year fundraising campaign, The History Center opened June 15, 1999, in the former Rapids Chevrolet building, 615 First Ave. SE. In 2004, it was renamed The Carl & Mary Koehler History Center to honor two generous benefactors.

Alexander, 34, had watched the action from the sidelines, working at the Brucemore historical site and with the African American Museum of Iowa. After five years as director of the Muscatine History & Industry Center, she was eager to get back to Cedar Rapids.

“It's a fun return for me,” she said. “The History Center, when I first came to Cedar Rapids, there was so much excitement about it.”

Alexander is optimistic that the center can once again generate excitement about its mission. There is now a solid foundation for growth: a $750,000 endowment, a reasonable $350,000 annual budget with two full-time and four part-time paid staff members and a 75-person volunteer force contributing nearly 7,000 hours a year.

“Volunteers,” she said, “are just an unbelievable asset for this organization.

“We want to start bringing more people through the door.”